The use of data storage systems to store large amounts of data has continued to gain popularity in today's digital age. A common use for such storage systems is for the storage of large numbers of electronic mail (e-mail) messages and message data filtered using various parameters. Companies employing data storage systems for such so-called “spam” e-mail filtering systems typically need to store millions or even billions of blocks of data reliably and safely. In addition, the storage of such large amounts of data also typically requires data transfer rates of thousands of data blocks per second, and accessible within fractions of a second. Moreover, later access of the stored data should be accessible either sequentially or randomly to more efficiently and quickly retrieve or delete the data, without bogging down the system.
Conventional systems employ large databases with file systems, such as Veritas®, on larger RAID (Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks) systems. Although such conventional systems may eventually be capable of achieving the extreme write and access speeds discussed above, such capabilities are typically so expensive as to escape the budget of all but the largest companies. In some cases, even the most expensive of such systems still cannot handle extremely large numbers of data blocks without bogging down to some extent. Accordingly, a need exists for novel data storage systems and related methods.